


What Wouldn't I Do?

by midnightseashell14



Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: F/M, Feelings Realization, Fluff and Angst, Serious Injuries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-06
Updated: 2019-10-06
Packaged: 2020-11-25 15:14:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20914184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/midnightseashell14/pseuds/midnightseashell14
Summary: Rayla gets hurt while trying to defend Callum and Zym from some Earth Elf guards. When Rayla is seriously injured Callum must decide what's more important. The groups secrets, or Rayla's life?(Rayla does get seriously injured but it is not graphic)





	What Wouldn't I Do?

Honestly the most surprising part of the whole situation was that it hadn’t happened sooner. 

Rayla and Callum had somehow been able to cross through the Sunfire elves territory without much fuss or disturbance. It hadn’t been that difficult actually. As it had turned out Sunfire elves were a single minded lot and right now their focus was gaining control of the breach. The villagers in the meantime were focused on doing their jobs and keeping food on the table. No one had the time or the interest in harrasing the travelers for any information. 

And to be honest it’s not like any of them would have guessed that a human would have ever traveled to Xadia. Hard to look for something you don’t think is there. 

Much to Callum’s delight it also turned out that Sunfire elves thought that Moonshadow elves were pretty weird.

So the journey thus far had been relatively tame. Nothing too dangerous or life threatening all in all.

That is until it came time to try and pass into the Earth elves territory. Callum didn’t know how they had noticed or figured out that he was human but they had. And now they were hot on his and Rayla’s tail. 

Unfortunately they couldn’t keep running forever, something they both quickly realized. Rayla could see a large boulder a few feet away and as soon as they were next to it she veered left and grabbed Callum to bring him down with her. 

Callum immediately took off his satchel and looked inside. Zym poked his head out and gave a little whimper. Callum pet his head and spoke softly.

“It’s okay Zym. We’re gonna be okay. Just stay in there a little while longer.” 

Zym gave another whine but curled himself back into the satchel. They could all hear the sounds of the three Earth elves running straight in their direction. Rayla took out her blades and turned to Callum.

“You wait here with Zym. I’ll deal with them.”

“What! Rayla you can’t! There’s three elite elven guards, you can’t fight them by yourself.” Rayla’s brow furrowed in agitation. Callum was right as much as she didn’t want to admit it. 

“Well what else can we do? Leaving Zym alone isn’t an option.”

“Rayla your amazing, but there’s no way you can take them all on.” Rayla felt a bit of heat in her cheeks but quickly dismissed it. Now was not the time.

“We’ll compromise. I’m going out there and if worse comes to worse you come out and do some magic. Then we make a run for it. Okay?” They locked eyes.

“Okay. Be careful.” Rayla nodded and leaped into the trees above them. 

Callum couldn’t really tell what was going on. He heard the sound of the blades clashing and the grunts of exertion coming from all sides. He wanted to turn around, but Rayla was fighting to keep Zym and himself hidden. He couldn’t risk it. 

Until he heard Rayla scream.

Rayla grunted as her blades meet the guards spear. Rayla had managed to take the other two by surprise and knock them into a large tree. They were a little discombobulated but they would be back on there feet in no time. 

Rayla didn’t have time to worry about that. This guard was skilled and she knew they second she lost focus it would be over.

“Your traveling with a human, why?” The guard asked her, oice hard. 

“None of your business.” 

The two pushed each other away and went back to trading blows. 

“You brought a human into Xadia! The land I’ve sworn to protect! You will tell me where they are hiding!” As the guard yelled Rayla managed to land a blow that made her stumble back several feet. She smirked.

“I guess you’ll just have to get used to living with disappointment.”

As their fight went on Rayla forgot about the two other guards who were getting back on their feet. Rayla noticed to late as all three came at her at once. A sword and spear met her blades at the same time sending her falling back. The third who had meant to also bring his axe down with the others couldn’t stop his momentum not having expected Rayla to fall.

As she fell Rayla felt the pain. But she didn’t scream until she had hit the ground.

The blood rushed to Callum’s ears as he heard Rayla scream. He couldn’t move fast enough, he felt like the world was moving in slow motion. He couldn’t think, he could barely breathe.

Callum ran from out behind the boulder to see what had happened. Rayla was on the ground. 

There was blood. So much blood. One of the guards was kneeling next to Rayla. They were touching her. Another at her side, weapon covered in blood, Rayla’s blood hovered over them as did the other one. He couldn’t make out what they were saying. The rushing was getting louder he could hear a loud thumping.

Was that his heart? He didn’t know it could be so loud.

He couldn’t breath but even then, feeling as if he had no air in his lungs, he screamed.

“Rayla!”

The guards turned towards him. Callum quickly moved his fingers through the air and inhaled despite the pain in his chest.

“Aspiro!” 

He wished that he could have relished the way the guards faces twisted in shock. That he had cast the spell with enough strength to throw them all away from Rayla by several feet. But at the moment none of that mattered .

“Rayla! Rayla can you hear me?” Callum asked as he knelt down beside her. Rayla only gave a weak moan in response.

Callum tore of his scarf and placed it against her stomach. Put pressure on the wound, it was one of the few first aid tips he knew.

He could see the elves coming towards them now. 

“Stay away from her!”

They all stopped. The guard that appeared to be the leader motioned for the other two to stay as she moved forward.

“Don’t think I won’t cast another spell!” That made the guard pause but only for a moment.

She stopped only a few feet away. Callum wanted to cast Aspiro again but that would mean taking his hands off of Rayla. 

“I want to help.” The guard said. Her hands out in front of her placatingly.

“You want to help? You did this to her!” Callum snarled. 

“That was an accident, we wanted to capture and question her. If you agree to answer our questions, fully and truthfully we will help her.” At this the guard holding the sword spoke up.

“Cara are you crazy! He’s a human we can’t-”

“He cares about her.” Her simple statement sent a shock through the other two.

“She protected him and now he’s protecting her. A human and a Moonshadow elf. That doesn’t happen everyday and I want to know why.”

At that moment Zym popped his head out of the satchel. Callum heard the guards exclamations of surprise. But all he could focus on was Zym nudging and licking Rayla’s hand. Urging her to get up. His whimpers grew louder the longer she didn’t respond. Zym looked up at him and Callum made his choice.

“It’s okay Zym they’re going to help us.” Zym whimpered again and Callum turned towards the guards all of whose eyes were trained on the baby dragon.

“You wanted answers right?”

Cara, he assumed, looked at him. She gave one single nod.

“Save her and I’ll tell you what you want to know.”

Cara nodded, motioned for the other two to join her and got to work.  
\----------

Callum moved aside as the elves got to work. Unless Cara asked him to do something specific there was really nothing he could do. Putting pressure on it really was the only thing he knew how to do when it came to tending wounds.

Callum sat down close enough to see what they were doing but far away enough as to not make a nuisance of himself. Zym followed him and cuddled on his lap. Callum pet his head and scratched behind his horns, the repetitive motions helped to calm him.He startled when he heard Cara’s voice.

“What’s your name?” She didn’t take her eyes or hands off of Rayla as she spoke.

“Questions come after she’s safe. That was the deal.” Cara let out a small snort.

“Sure the big ones. But unless you want me to call you boy you're gonna have to give me a name.”

Callum frowned, he really didn’t want to be called boy. It sounded degrading and these elves were definitely already forming their own opinions of him.

“It’s Callum.” Cara nodded.

“Alrighty then, Callum. What’s your favorite color?” Now Callum was really confused. 

“I’m sorry but, what?” 

“Your friend just got really hurt and people you don’t trust are tending to her. I’m gonna go out on a limb and say you're not handling it well. I know I wouldn’t.” Callum frowned but didn’t argue. After all, she wasn’t wrong.

“It’s red.” Cara hummed.

“Red, huh. Mine is yellow. What about you Oran?” The guy with the sword, who was apparently named Oran, rolled his eyes but answered.

“Mine is red as well. Guess we got that in common human.” Callum wanted to be defensive but for some reason the elf didn’t sound like he meant human as an insult.

“His name’s Callum. He told us while you were getting some water.” This time the guy with the axe answered. He had stayed silent the entire time. 

Oran Looked at Callum and nodded.

“Callum then.” Callum nodded back and then turned to the axe man, who had not taken his eyes off of him.

“Name’s Lorcan. Sorry about your...friend.” He said it as if he still couldn’t believe it.

“Cara was right though, it was an accident. We meant to capture you for questioning. Not… you know.” 

Callum didn’t turn away. He was angry but… he knew that anger would get him nowhere. The whole point of the quest they were on was to prove that anger didn’t always have to win. That if humans and elves could forgive, there could be healing. He hoped that was what would happen now.

“I can’t… I can’t say that I forgive you.” All three turned to him now and Callum stared back.

“But I do understand. When Rayla wakes up… if you have her forgiveness then you’ll have mine.”

Callum might have been imagining it but he thought he could see a glimmer of respect in their eyes. He shook his head.

“Any way you never answered the question.” Lorcan’s brow scrunched up in confusion. 

“What’s your favorite color?” Lorcan’s brow smoothed out and he huffed a small laugh.

“My favorite color is gray.” Oran gave him a look filled with judgement.

“Gray. Really? Could you be anymore boring.” Lorcan just shrugged.

“Oran get me the thread and needle.” 

The mood became serious again as Cara called out for supplies. Oran nodded and started going through his satchel. Cara turned to Callum.

“The wound is not that deep but it’s deep enough. I’m gonna need to give her some stitches.” 

Callum bit his lip as Oran came back with the supplies. The needle was big and bent in a way similar to a circle. The thread was black and thicker than normal thread that would be used on clothing. Cara jerked her head at Callum and then at Rayla then waited for him to come over.

Callum carefully put Zym, who had fallen asleep back in his satchel and made his way towards the group.

“Even though she’s out right now this will still hurt. Oran and Lorcan will have to hold her down to make sure she doesn’t hurt herself while I’m doing this. I want you to hold her hand as this is all happening.”

“Hold her hand? What good will that do?” Callum didn’t see how holding Rayla’s hand would be the least bit of help.

“It will comfort her. Even if she’s in pain she’ll know you right there, looking out for her.” Callum looked up at Cara who held his gaze.

“Okay.”

Everyone moved into position and Cara started. Only moments in Rayla began to thrash, Oran and Lorcan pouring all of their focus into holding her down. Callum tightened his grip on Rayla’s hand. He knew that he wasn’t a very strong guy but he was almost worried for a second that he would break her hand. For some reason Rayla’s thrashing went down in intensity and Callum could swear he felt her squeeze his hand back. Just a little.

“Don’t let go of her hand Callum. It’s helping.” He could hear Cara say. She sounded distant even though she was less than a foot away.

Callum didn’t once let go of Rayla’s hand.

The sun was setting by the time that they were done. Rayla was bandaged and resting, Callum sat next to her.

Everyone had gathered in a circle. The elves were eating some dry berries that they had in their packs. Callum didn’t think he could stomach anything yet.

“So you ready to answer some questions?” Callum shrugged.

“That was the deal.”

The elves looked at each other for a moment as if silently deciding who should go first. Unsurprisingly it was Cara.

“What’s with the baby dragon?” 

Zym had woken up at this point and was happily laying down between Callum’s leg and Rayla’s body. He was munching on some provisions that Callum had saved from their last stop to a town.

Callum took a deep breath.

“I am Prince Callum of Katolis. Brother to King Ezran and Son of King Harrow and Queen Serai. A few weeks ago a group of Moonshadow elves were sent to kill my father and brother. That’s when I met Rayla.”

He paused to look down at her.

“As she was chasing me and my brother we accidentally discovered an egg. The egg of the dragon prince. And we decided to return the egg to its mother. We want to end the war between Xadia and Katolis. The hatred has lasted long enough. We thought that if we could return ,Zym, that’s his name, then maybe…” Callum trailed off.

The elves looked at him. He was getting more used to their shocked faces than their normal ones.

“You mean that’s him? That’s the dragon prince?” Oran asked. Zym gave a little squeal.

“Yep. He hatched along the way.”

They asked a few more questions about Zym. Callum guessed that part of it was the allure of him actually being alive, but he was sure that most of it was because Zym was cute.

“What I want to know is how could you do magic?” This time it was Lorcan who asked. The other two turned to him as if just remembering that Callem had knocked them all back with a wind spell.

“I’ve seen dark magic before and that wasn’t it. That was primal magic. But you're a human so… how?”

“I love magic. It’s the only thing that I’ve ever been good at. At first I used a primal stone but I had to destroy it to save Zym.”  
He scratched Zym’s head, who let out a happy chirp.

“So I decided that I would find a way to tap into the primal sources. Even if I am a human. And well, after some crazy stuff and soul searching, I did.”

“Wait I don’t understand. I thought humans weren’t capable of using magic and that’s why they created dark magic?”

“I think it’s just harder. Black magic is easy but it comes with a price. Tapping into the primal source. That was hard, the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Humans aren’t bad but I think… after a while if someone tells you that you can’t do something you accept it. You try to figure out other solutions. I guess that… I was just the first one who was stubborn enough not to accept it.”

Lorcan let out a loud guffaw.

“More stubborn than hundreds of generations of humans. You're crazy Callum.”

Callum had to smile at that.

“Just a little bit,” The others let out snickers as Lorcan continued to let out laughter of disbelief. 

“I know this wasn’t part of the deal but can I ask you guys something?” They all looked at one another and shrugged.

“Shoot,” Oran said.

“You don’t seem to have a problem with me. Why is that?” 

They all seemed to take the question very seriously, thinking for a moment before answering.

“The earth elves prefer to stay out of conflict and to be totally honest, a lot of us are divided on the issue,” Lorcan started.

“The Sunfire elves are at the border so they feel most of the conflict, we don’t really have enough contact with humans to have a grudge. I mean yeah there's the big stuff but as a whole Earth elves are very sensible,” Oran added.

“Earth elves were actually very close with the humans. More than most other elves, most of the humans who came here were farmers and the two bonded over their care for the earth. We’re also not very prideful, many of the older elves feel like it was the elves making the humans feel inferior that lead to the creation of dark magic. And many fought against the idea of exiling the entire race instead of just the dark magic practitioners,” Cara finished.

“Oh wow. So you guys have a different opinion than the others.”

“Different cultures, different mindsets,” Lorcan replied.

“Now I still have a lot of questions but before all that we need to figure out how to help you two.” Cara said, causing Callum to look at her in surprise.

“Help us? You are?”

“Course we are! Callum you two are the key to bring peace to the entire continent. There’s no way we wouldn’t help.” Oran said beaming at him.

Callum could feel the hope rising in his chest.

“Thank you. Really.” 

“Now here’s what we should do.”  
\----------

Rayla was groggy when she finally woke up. She was also very confused. She knew that she was in a bed and wrapped in sheets. There was a large window in the center of the room that let bright sunlight pour in. 

As Rayla began to really wake up her confusion didn’t lesson. She remembered getting slashed with an axe and it hurting but after that, nothing. Honestly she expected to feel a lot worse for how bad her wound must have been. She could even sit up without much discomfort. 

Then she remembered, if she had been stabbed then what had happened to- Callum!

Rayla rushed to try and get out of the bed but even as good as she felt she was nowhere near tip top shape. As Rayla tried to stand the door to the room began to open. She turned towards it, ready and willing to fight whoever was on the other side. Until she saw who it was.

“Callum!” Callum froze at the sound of her voice and seeing her up but quickly got a hold of himself. A giant and excited smile bursting across his face.

“Rayla!” Callum ran to her and pulled her into his arms. She was so relieved that he was okay.

“I’m so glad you're okay.” Rayla told him as she hugged him back. 

The pair stood like that for a while before loosening their hold on one another. Rayla took the chance to look around the room before turning back to Callum who hadn’t taken his eyes off her for a second.

“Callum where are we exactly?”

Now Callum looked sheepish, Rayla was pretty sure she wasn’t going to like what he was going to say. As Callum explained the situation Rayla went through a series of emotions. Anger, worry, confusion and finally exasperation.

“So you told them everything!”

“Well that was the deal.”

“And when I couldn’t protect you instead of running off with Zym like you should have you went to help me. Callum don’t misunderstand me it was sweet and kind but.. You shouldn’t have done that.”

Now Callum looked mad.

“Oh please, Rayla, as if you wouldn’t have done the same thing.” Rayla opened her mouth to argue but he didn’t give her the chance.

“I know you’re worried but we can trust them. Cara let us stay in her house and has been tending to your wounds. She even made a special salve to speed up the healing process.”

Well that did explain why she felt as good as she did.

“But even so Callum, you told them everything. You made a deal with them that could have gotten you in trouble! If not outright killed!”

“I don’t care!” Callum pulled Rayla back in a tight hug.

“There is nothing I wouldn’t do for you Rayla. You mean too much to me.”

Rayla felt as though she could cry as she hugged him back. What was done was done after all, no sense being upset with Callum over it. Besides she understood him perfectly.

She would do anything for Callum too.


End file.
